What happened to democratic Iran?

Again, despite having experience working in the Middle East I feel there are several blogs which contribute greater public discourse on the topic than I, considering I really only focus on that area a few days a week at most. One thing has recently caught my attention, however, with respect to the escalating situation with Iran.

Last week the administration couldn’t quite get its story straight with respect to the potential supply of weapons from Iranian special forces to Iraqi insurgents. Now one can look at various aspects of the media coverage over the past 6 months. One week Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is speaking about destroying Israel and the West, the next he wants diplomatic discussions. First they have a secret nuclear program, and then it is for peaceful purposes. Stories even run to the extreme on both sides of the fence from a conservative view that Iran wants to convert the world to Islam and a liberal interpretation that the US will conduct a false-flag attack on soldiers or sailors in the Gulf to justify limited bombing runs.

What I find interesting is the lack of reporting on the middle class democratic movement in Iran. Prior to the election of Ahmadinejad and the growing rhetoric on our two countries foreign policy, several stories were run discussing the US-Persian influence, via satellite on sympathetic ears inside Iran. The US government had even committed funds to support such efforts to expand the Iranian middle-class and expand the push for democracy. I have two questions: (1) where has the reporting on this situation gone and (2) have we succeeded in alienating the one constituency in Iran that may have supported us?

 

The Real Iraq War

I have an upcoming article on the Iraq War, Shades of Thermopylae, but I wanted to go ahead and pass on the link to a blog hosting an excellent documentary and comment section.

You can find that here (graphic content warning).

If the US media could pull themselves away from astronauts in diapers, Anna Nicole Smith’s death, and Britney Spears shaving her head and getting a tattoo and going panty-less we might actually learn something about foreign policy other than “stay the course.”

 

Worst News Segue of the Week

Again, I don’t like to deviate much from my typical topics here at The Higher Bar but some things are hard to ignore. In the near future I will be contributing to another blog where I will cover such social issues on the media, policy and religion just to name a few. This particular post has to do with the popular media and their drastic need for improvement.

Who: CNN Headline News

When: 02/16/2007 -9:56am

What: Following the story covering a South Korean woman who sang 59 straight hours (Monday through Valentines Day) of kareoke for her dying husband, they transition to a story of a 4-ton rampaging elephant in Sri Lanka.

Segue: “They weren’t songs of love, but screams of fear as a a four-ton elephant went wild.”

 

Everyone has the Right to be an Ass

The weekend is closing in and time to work on some of my more opinionated pieces. This month has provided a great deal of outstanding material to speak on the topic of freedom. From banning Superbowl Commercials to expelling students, our country is slipping down the PC river without a padel. We seem to keep forgetting, everyone has the right to be an ass. That’s right, I said it.

Amendment I – Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression. Ratified 12/15/1791.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Just take a look at some of the stories from the past few weeks:

• Snickers manly commercial pulled due to gay protest.
• GM robot commercial under fire from suicide groups.

(Incidentally I am currently formulating the most non-offensive Superbowl ad ever made, so marketing firms FYI.)

• Tony Long’s recent article on violent video games, particularly Super Columbine Massacre RPG
• NAACP probes Clemson college party (pictures available at The Smoking Gun)
• Macalister College politically incorrect party under investigation
• Find the illegal immigrant game at New York University draws protest
• Satire of rape in Central Connecticut State University draws protests
• San Diego skateboarder tazed after riding on sidewalk – Video here

Now because everyone has this right, doesn’t mean as a society they should be made to feel comfortable for their views, but they should not be fired, expelled, suspended, censored or forced into retirement. Despite not being a great movie, I’m reminded of the mayor of New York in the movie Ghostbusters II, “being miserable and treating other people like dirt is every New Yorker’s God given right.”

 

Aqua Teen Movie Trailer – Lookout Boston!

I don’t normally write about entertainment issues outside the realm of research or societal interest, but all the trouble the “devices” caused Boston last week, I couldn’t resist. So without further ado The Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie Trailer.

Warning: Could be considered an Al-Qaeda training video in Boston

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Superbowl Commercials & Violence?

I refrained from writing any articles analyzing the numerous Superbowl commercials this year. With all the buzz around the big game and the commercials anyway I figured it would just be useless clutter. I did however want to draw attention a NY Times article that attempts to follow along the same lines as my regular Commercial Culture posts. They explore the idea that the level of violence in this years commercials, “cartoonish” as it may be, could reflect the toll the Iraq War is having on the American psyche.

No commercial that appeared last night during Super Bowl XLI directly addressed Iraq, unlike a patriotic spot for Budweiser beer that ran during the game two years ago. But the ongoing war seemed to linger just below the surface of many of this year’s commercials.

More than a dozen spots celebrated violence in an exaggerated, cartoonlike vein that was intended to be humorous, but often came across as cruel or callous.

For instance, in a commercial for Bud Light beer, sold by Anheuser-Busch, one man beat the other at a game of rock, paper, scissors by throwing a rock at his opponent’s head.

In another Bud Light spot, face-slapping replaced fist-bumping as the cool way for people to show affection for one another. In a FedEx commercial, set on the moon, an astronaut was wiped out by a meteor. In a spot for Snickers candy, sold by Mars, two co-workers sought to prove their masculinity by tearing off patches of chest hair.

While I agree that it is likely that the images of war we see daily manifest themselves in ways we cannot immediately explain in our everyday lives; I think men ripping the hair from their chest after having accidentally kissed may be linked to other psychological issues rather than the current state of our foreign policy.

My personal favorite from last night and it appears was a big winner: Blockbuster’s Total Access Mouse

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Superbowl’s Appeal to the Younger Viewer?

The not so hidden costs of the Superbowl

 

Superbowl’s Appeal to the Younger Viewer?

Following the exploits of Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake at the Superbowl in 2004 a new wave of American Puritanism began, resulting in the over-enthusiastic FCC to label everything obscene, regardless, the show must go on. In early January I posted an article under my Commercial Culture tag comparing the popularity of beer and wine as a distribution of football viewers.

Although I did not have access to a great deal of market information, it appeared that as with many institutions in our society, the average football viewer is aging, meaning that not as many younger people are becoming football fans or playing youth football; certainly not at a rate to replace the aging boomers.

Earlier tonight I watched the Superbowl (on a personal note, I hate the Indianapolis Colts and Peyton Manning). If it is truly the goal of the NFL to start drawing a younger fan base, let me ask, does it make sense to have Stevie Nicks, Billy Joel, and Prince be the highlighted performers? Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy some Billy Joel and Fleetwood Mac (Prince, not so much), but I don’t see the logic here. The commercial spots surrounding the performers were as such:

Billy Joel
Before – CBS: CSI Miami,
After – Movie: Norbit

Prince
Before – NFL: Walter Peyton Man of the Year
After – Pepsi*

* In all fairness, Pepsi was the sponsor of the halftime show, so it makes sense they would have one of the sandwich spots. I do on the other hand find it ironic that they were once “The Choice of a New Generation.”

Gloria Estefan & Cirque du Soleil
Before – CBS: Survivor
After – Combos Pretzel Snacks

By and large, it would seem these commercials appeal to the opposite crowd based on the relative popularity of the artists.

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Why we need to understand complexity – Exxon & Global Warming

There is a plethora of energy related news this week. ExxonMobil once again broke the record for quarterly profits, eclipsing the record they set last year a day before the UN conference on climate change where human beings are to be implicated as the direct causal factor of global warming.

Remember about a month ago, ExxonMobil was implicated in attempting to distort facts on global warming in a public communication campaign.

“ExxonMobil has, in a cynical and manipulative strategy, helped create a kind of echo chamber to amplify the views of a carefully selected group of spokespeople whose work has been largely discredited by the scientific community,” said Seth Schulman, the report’s primary author, in a conference call today with reporters. The strategy is built on the notion, the report found, that “public opinion can be easily manipulated because science is complex, because people tend not to notice where their information comes from, and because the effects of global warming are just beginning to become visible.”

Today it has become known that the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil funded thinktank with close ties to the Bush Administration, offered select scientists and economists $10,000 each to undermine the climate change report.

Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered the payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Travel expenses and additional payments were also offered.

Once again why we need to understand the concept of complexity and systems thinking in world affairs.

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Why we need to understand complexity

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Homeland Security’s Lost Sense of Purpose

According to a recent poll of federal workers, the Department of Homeland Security rated the lowest among federal agencies in terms of job satisfaction.

Homeland Security, as noted by Deputy Secretary Michael Jackson, ranked:
-36th on job satisfaction.
-35th on leadership and knowledge management.
-36th on results-oriented performance culture.
-33rd on talent management.

He added that employees have “shouldered the weight of long hours, complex integration assignments, multiple reorganizations, and no small amount of criticism” since the department was created in March 2003.

The most satisfied workers were at NASA and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Do the employees in these other departments share a common sense of purpose and relate to the work they perform or are there other factors affecting their attitudes? In the coming days as the managers and department heads of the DHS begin analyzing the data, the nature and level of the work will surely come into question, perhaps they should take a note from Teva Neuroscience of Canada where,

You won’t find slick furniture, a gourmet kitchen or foosball table — the bells and whistles that some companies have come to believe are essential to employee satisfaction and productivity.Rather, people like to work here because they believe they belong here — and they’re rewarded for their loyalty and commitment.

“We focus on three clarities,”… “Clarity of structure: Where do I fit in with this company? Clarity of direction: Where am I going? And clarity of measurement: How do I know I did a good job?

Since its inception, the DHS has been undergoing a constant change management project attempting to integrate a multitude of agencies, historically opposed to working together, into a cohesive unit. Contributing to the turmoil and highlighting glaring flaws and shortfalls in this grand experiment was one of the largest natural disasters in US history, Hurricane Katrina, and an invasion by the Mooninites. Add on top of this the constant barrage of criticism from stakeholders (citizens) and it becomes easy to understand the lack of job satisfaction.

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Clarity, Engagement, and Teva Neuroscience

 

Disney’s Careerbuilder “Dream Job”

I received a special notice from Careerbuilder today, that Disney running a contest to provide people with a one-day “Dream Job” from the following list:

Honorary Disney Pirate

Honorary Disney Princess-in-Waiting

Honorary Disney Jungle Cruise Skipper

Honorary Disney Park Parade Performer

Honorary Disney Haunted Mansion Butler or Maid

As a kid, I had fallen in love with DisneyWorld for obvious reasons. From the moment you arrive at one of the parks, it is one of the happiest places on earth, for children anyway. During my summer internship search at Purdue University, I had the opportunity to interview with Disney for an engineering position (a job which went to my roommate, Jeremy). Following his summer, I found out more about the general summer jobs.

Most summer employees are housed at a central apartment complex, have one of the most stringent dress code policies including a guide of acceptable haircuts, and a sizable portion return having spent more money than was made (largely due to rent). Is it any wonder that Tigger is smacking people around?

Now while I can’t comment on the current status of Disney’s human resources, a 2001 story regarding the cleanliness of approved shared undergarments comes to mind.

Each night, they hand in the underwear with the rest of their costume before going home, and pick up a new set the next day.

Many of the characters have to wear Disney-issued jock-straps, tights or cycling shorts underneath their costumes because normal underwear bunches up and can be seen.

Some workers complained about receiving undergarments that were stained or smelly and Mr Steverson said there have been three cases of costumed workers at the Magic Kingdom getting pubic lice or scabies during the past two years.

Given the difficulty in changing corporate culture, particularly treatment of workers lower in the hierarchy, I can’t imagine things have significantly improved; definitely not enough to qualify the Pirate position as a “Dream Job.” Now taking CEO Robert Iger’s job for a day given his 2006 compensation of $22 million wouldn’t be all that bad.

On a side note, I heard an interesting Disney related rumor, one that has been circulating around the DFW area and web for a few years now, that will be disclosed on Superbowl Sunday. Disney is going to build a fourth US theme park in Frisco, TX.   Of course it could always be a ploy to get dejected Cowboys fans to tune into the big game.